Cautious optimism: San Francisco drug overdose deaths hit 4-year low
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A four-year low in drug overdose deaths is cause for cautious optimism, San Francisco public health officials say.
"We are continuing to work to change our systems, break down the bureaucracy, and change the culture around access to treatment of buprenorphine and methadone," said Dr. Grant Colfax, the director of San Francisco Department of Public Health.
On Wednesday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported a 15% overall drop in overdose deaths so far this year. The city is largely crediting the work of its night navigation team for its work taking treatment to the streets.
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"I want to celebrate that yes the numbers are low but at the end of the day we still have so much more to do," said Donna Hilliard, executive director of Code Tenderloin, the nonprofit helping to operate the team. "Real-time real access to care means everything."
In its first few months the team's doled out more than 800 prescriptions for buprenorphine through telehealth and the city wants to see methadone made just as accessible.
Public health officials are getting behind AB 2115, introduced by Assembly Member Matt Haney.
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Would would align the state with federal guidelines -- allowing methadone to be more easily prescribed.
"The stigma and over-regulation prevent people from staying in treatment...that's what methadone patients need to do to get their daily medication," said Dr. Hillary Kunins, with director of behavioral health, SFDPH.
Meanwhile, warnings of a weaker supply of fentanyl, dubbed "soap" is driving people to use more.
"If they then go to the same dealer and get a different potency and they go and use the more it is a very dangerous place to be," said Lydia Bransten, executive director of the Gubbio Project, a nonprofit working with people on the streets in the Mission District.
"While I am of course elated that there are less people dying this month than there were a year ago this month this not the time to let up. It's time to double down."
